Conundrum

A friend recommended The Dragon of Doom, which is in the Moongobble and Me series by Bruce Coville - for the 8yo boy and 7yo girl I'm working with in the second class on Monday evening. I love the story, and the girl seems to be enjoying it too.

The only trouble is that the 8yo I'm starting to work with is finding it too difficult. I don't have a good idea about where he's coming from, but from what I can see, he either doesn't know or isn't confident about sounding words out and at one point when I asked him to just try to sound it out aloud, he completely shut down. He stared at the paper so hard I thought he was crying. After waiting a few moments, I threw the reading back over to 7 and she read the pages much more easily. Before we stopped for the night I asked 8 to read another paragraph (Moongobble's overheard first spell) with made up words in it (izzle, biggle, etc) and he read it willingly, but with hesitation.

When I asked him, he agreed that this was a little too hard, but that he didn't want to read something easier. However, I'm here to tell you that he's guessing at more words than he's able to easily read and understand.

So I'm not sure what to do about that. 7 is pretty well placed, in as much as she's reading & comprehending most of the words on the page. I suspect if I asked her to read ahead, she could do so without having to ask for much clarification.

So - do I have them continue at the same pace, or should I have her read something more challenging and give him something easier?

In which case, how am I going to manage the time in order to give them both my attention?

I'd also like to have time to read a classic to them. Some Dahl, or Narnia, or .. well you get the picture. But it's hard to split the time between giving them practice at reading and giving them the chance to hear someone else read. I never know which is more important.

Commitment

A friend from school and I have committed to walk together every day. In the physical sense, we are not walking together, as she lives in Massachusetts, but we have set a time and an intention to walk for a specific amount of time together each day. It has only been two days, and I have only been able to get out and walk once; this morning.

So I walked, and then I came home and conquered the yellow and red striped day lily in the back bed. It has gotten big and I want to plant a cherry tree in the bed as spring comes along. So, I dug it up and left it's parts on the path in the garden until I have the energy to go and move it to the trash.

But, I digress.

It's a beautiful day here and as I walked I found myself peeking into other people's gardens and wishing I could randomly plant hundreds of crocuses, because so few people seem to bother and they are such sweet flowers at this time of year.

Every year come autumn, I think, I'd like to buy more crocus and daffodils and plant them, because I love them and they seem to me to be quintessentially reminiscent of childhood, along with snowdrops and aconites. I grew up in gardens. I learned to live and breathe with plants. In recent years I haven't purchased more bulbs for one reason and another - lack of money, being out of the country, having bought bulbs that didn't come up.

This year, I'm going to buy a whole bunch of bulbs and plant them willy-nilly.

And an addendum:

Some time has passed today between starting and publishing this entry. I went back outdoors to put up a bird feeder and throw out the day lily parts, and was tempted to dig up the other elderly daylily plant. And so I tried. And I broke the head of my fork clean off. I have other forks, but poop. So much for my bravado at taking on the plant single-personedly.

People will come

My class has gone from two to seven in the last two weeks, and the ages range from six to twelve. I'm structuring it so that I have the three youngest and most challenged (aged 6 & 7) earliest, followed by the two slightly older (7 & 8), and then I have to figure out how to squeeze in the eldest of one family (12) and another boy who's age I don't know.

If anyone has spares or finds free/cheap copies of the A to Z mysteries or Magic Tree House books, I can use them. Also, extra copies of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books or any other level 2 & 3 I Can Read series.

Let me know if you need a mailing address.

And, thank you.

If it's not one thing...

Urg, if it's not one thing, it's another. Recently I've been at school in New York a lot. And when I'm home from school, I seem to have an uncanny knack at putting myself out of circulation with one thing or another.

Two weeks ago this morning, I slipped on ice near the back door and fell down the porch steps into the icy grass. I whumped myself a good one - not breaking a bone, but managing to cover most of one side of my ass with a large black bruise. It's still painful, although the outer bruising has gone.

This week I seem to have a stomach bug. Not throwing up, I'm grateful to report, but spending a lot of time in the bathroom all the same. When not in the bathroom, just feeling queasy and wishing I could eat something.

I held one sugar blues talk, and am holding a second this wednesday coming. I hope to hell I'm feeling better come the weekend, because I need to write up notes on what to say. I don't feel up to it at the present time.

However, I wanted to post something, because I've been so absent lately.

Nourish Passion & Reach Wellness

I wanted to draw your attention to the website about my new holistic health counselling practice:

NourishPassion.com

Please use the contact form to let me know when you are ready to schedule your free health consultation!